May 10, 2017

"If transgenderism is appropriate, then transracialism is appropriate./Transgenderism is appropriate./Therefore, transracialism is appropriate."

That's the argument Rebecca Tuvel believed she was making, but the reason feminist philosophers freaked out, Jim S. argues, is that Tuvel's modus ponens argument flips all too easily into this modus tollens argument:
If transgenderism is appropriate, then transracialism is appropriate.
Transracialism is not appropriate.
Therefore, transgenderism is not appropriate.

117 comments:

Jake said...

Hence the fear. And, the necessity that Tuvel be destroyed.

Earnest Prole said...

No shit, Sherlock.

YoungHegelian said...

Tricksy those syllogisms is, Precious!

David said...

But your sexual preference is determined at birth.

No wonder we are confused.

(What a lucky society that we can devote so much time and energy to determining our sexual preferences.)

Anonymous said...

I'm not seeing the problem here.

Chuck said...

Transracialism would mean the end of affirmative action. So maybe it's not all bad.

rhhardin said...

Socialized gender. Nothing's one's own.

Todd said...

potato, potahto
tomato, tomahto

Who "really" cares if you have a penis or not or if your va-ja is given by God or Doc Hollywood?

Who "really" cares if your skin tone is natural or out of a can?

sparrow said...

This entire line of thought is lunacy: ie the denial of reality.

rhhardin said...

Is there's gender fluid, there must be gender gas.

pdug said...

when dolezal hit the news, Gene Demby, on of Code Switch Team at NPR (they handle what used to be cutting edge issues of race in america, but have tended to focus on things that happened more than 50 years ago instead) was clearly bothered by the challenge Dolezal presented to both his racial worldview and his trans-friendly worldview

So he was aking twitter (!) to help him justify his revulsion at dolezal

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CHUCwtUWIAA3Fqf.jpg:large

Demby tweets:
"Q1: What do we say about the idea that if Bruce Jenner was “allowed” to be Caitlyn, why can’t Dolezal “pass” as black? #RachelDolezal

We here at @NPRCodeSwitch feel in our bones that race and gender operate differently along these lines... 3/4 #RachelDolezal

But we’re having a reaaally hard time articulating why. Help us work this out? 4/4 #RachelDolezal

I'm mostly annoyed that all this #RachelDolezal noise is taking away psychic energy better used for Jason Whitlock schadenfreude."

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Those Ancestry.com DNA kits might end up opening a real can of shit, as whites who discover they're really 10% Hispanic or black or American Indian start making AA claims based on their results.

The DNA test results would still show that Caitlyn Jenner is male.

rhhardin said...

You'd need a boltzmann equaton of deal with gender gas.

Gender fluid is only one gender at a single place, but gender gas would be have a distribution of genders at every place.

Difficult to pick up at a bar.

Kevin said...

Just use the Eric Blair Method: simply redefine the word "appropriate" in a way that creates the result you want.

Not only does this remove the incongruity, but now allows "scientific" research to further buttress its validity.

Kevin said...

I look forward to Tucker Carlson's next interview with Caitlin Jenner where she tries to square this circle.

buwaya said...

"Just use the Eric Blair Method"

Or going back a bit further,

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”

tcrosse said...

Santa Claus exists, but to assert the existence of the Easter Bunny is absurd and childish.

Gahrie said...

Wait...you mean the emperor isn't wearing any clothes?

buwaya said...

Race, gender, what pikers.

What if we wanted to imagine ourselves as transdimensional beings, maybe, or entirely disassociated with, and transcending, all physical reality? Ethereal intelligences?
This opens plenty of madness options, well beyond any misunderstandings of biology.

Or more down to earth, what about simply imagining lots of money?

Michael K said...

"This entire line of thought is lunacy: ie the denial of reality."

We got a preview yesterday of how this is coming to the military after July 1. There has been talk but it sounds like regulations are being written.

Personally, I think it is a mental illness and the military is playing with fire to allow this.

Bay Area Guy said...

Beautiful diagram of what poses as leftwing logic.

She implies that transgenderism may not be appropriate - so Burn the Witch!

I'm still waiting for the Transageism movement to gain traction. I demand that other people respect my identity as a 26-year old.

Gahrie said...

Hey look on the bright side...perhaps India and China have a solution to their problem....just take half of the extra men they have in their populations and perform sex change operations on them.

Fernandinande said...

The people concerned about this stuff should use their imaginations for something interesting, like flying to other planets or being microscopic and battling giant aphids.

Compare:
"Master, master, this is recorded through a fly's ear and you have to have a fly's eye to see it"
vs
"Master, master, I feel that my skin and/or genitals are supposed to be different than they are."

How boring can you get?

Fernandinande said...

One Wish Per Customer

Laslo Spatula said...

Does the mathematics of the statement not correlate to the song from the previous post: Nothing from Nothing (leaves Nothing)?

I am Laslo.

Owen said...

Rhhardin: gender gas is a brilliant concept. Thanks.

Stochastically yours, O.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The idea was to make Vina physically deformed enough to shock the TV viewer to distract attention away from the patent silliness of the claim that the Talosians were unable to fix her up sufficiently after they found her as an infant in the wreckage of the spaceship.

That's my theory, anyway, for why Captain Pike never imagines her as a Talosian, what with the big head, the throbbing temple vein, and all.

She needed to be 100% good-looking until the kicker at the end. Those moments when she lets on that she's scheming in league with the Talosians hinted that she's dangerous, but not that she's un-hot.

Why she explains that she's ugly because the Talosians had never seen a human before is kind of a mystery. I'd have gone with their technological stagnation, myself, same as they couldn't repair the machines left by their predecessors. But that sort of thinking goes a long way toward explaining why I don't get the big bucks.

rhhardin said...

Nothing comes from nothing is King Lear.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Care.exe not found. The file may be missing or corrupt.

Misinforminimalism said...

Methinks the fatal mistake is entertaining an "if" at the beginning of that bit of logic.

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

exiledonmainstreet said...
Those Ancestry.com DNA kits might end up opening a real can of shit, as whites who discover they're really 10% Hispanic or black or American Indian start making AA claims based on their results.


Sgt. Cleon Brown, who remains on the force, claims he’s been harassed since he revealed he’s 18 percent black. It all began when an ancestry research site answered a lingering question Brown had about his lineage."

++

But the above is unusual.

Although the TV ads for the gene testing companies imply that you should prepare to be delighted about discovering that you're actually 16% noble Amerindian, nearly everyone in the US who thinks they're white or Asian really is white or Asian.

Michael E. Lopez said...

I cannot imagine that there is anyone even remotely interested in this topic who did not *immediately* understand this.

It's philosophy we're talking about, after all.

pdug said...

The irony? is that both are conflicts over human reproduction. Black people reproduce black people. Whites make white people.

Women (people with wombs) make new babies. The main biological difference of mammalian sex is the female carries the baby in a womb for a period of time and the male does not. This is the gravitational pull at the base of all gender distinctions.

But Jenner tries to become an astronaut against that gravitational pull. Uses technology to overcome the gravitational pull and live in a constructed environment that is not the ecosphere of Earth.

a big part of Dolezal, ISTM, if we can trust her self-reports, is that her own adoption of her black adopted sibling is a major push for why she decided her natural ancestry mattered less than the orbit of black life she found herself in. Again, she resists the gravitational pull of her family of origin, and ends up burning up on re-entry.

All of this is a denial of the thing pulling us to the natural world, our dimorphic sexes., and ancestry through time.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Although the TV ads for the gene testing companies imply that you should prepare to be delighted about discovering that you're actually 16% noble Amerindian, nearly everyone in the US who thinks they're white or Asian really is white or Asian."

Elizabeth Warren hardest hit.

furious_a said...

I'm black from the neck down and the wrists up

furious_a said...

Although the TV ads for the gene testing companies imply that you should prepare to be delighted about discovering that you're actually 16% noble Amerindian

Unless one is adopted or out-of-wedlock, how does one not already know this?

Owen said...

Rhhardin: "Nothing comes from nothing is King Lear."

Ex nihil nihilo fit. Not sure how old the Latin is, but I suspect the idea predates Shakespeare.

Owen said...

ALERT. Should be "ex nihilo nihil fit." SHAME on me. The minute I typed it I knew it was wrong.

**goes off to flagellate self**

tcrosse said...

OTOH my sister did the DNA test so I wouldn't have to. Although our Mother's family is French-Canadian, we were surprised to find no trace of les peaux-rouges.

Quayle said...

While Transgenderism strikes a blow to civil rights laws, it will utterly kill female sports. Transracialism will then kill off the rest of the civil rights laws. And gay marriage coupled with state marriage community property laws will ultimately kill off gift tax and partnership tax laws.

But viva la vanguard. What is built over centuries by millions with skill can be burned down in weeks by any small group of idiots.


Oh Yea said...

Blogger Michael K said...
"We got a preview yesterday of how this is coming to the military after July 1. There has been talk but it sounds like regulations are being written."

Already done, see DOD INSTRUCTION 1300.28 IN-SERVICE TRANSITION FOR TRANSGENDER SERVICE MEMBERS

Static Ping said...

Logic can be a bitch like that. It takes your assumptions and gives you conclusions consistent with your assumptions. If what you believe conflicts with your conclusions, the most likely reasons are your assumptions are wrong or your beliefs are wrong. It is also possible that the logic was performed incorrectly. It is a humbling experience all around but the wise will be better for it.

Remember my comment previously that persons of limited talent find their way into the "good life" and then try to make it so they can't be removed? This is a prime example. Any academic and/or philosopher that would insist on censoring the uncomfortable implications without actually providing an argument has permanently disqualified themselves from either position. Of course, they were not qualified to begin with so the tantrum is fully justified in their cases. Nothing to lose.

Our betters are losers.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Yeah, but you can deny the consequent.

Probably it's better to argue that transracialism and transsexualism are sufficiently different to preclude substitution into an otherwise-valid inference framework. If you claim that the two are unrelated then you can attack the unstated/hidden conditional "transracialism and transsexualism are interchangable" and thereby break the "link" between the two formally-valid logical arguments.

It's not really a defense of the people who attacked Tuvel to say that they're objecting to a different logical argument if that different logical argument is, in formal terms at least, valid! "They're freaking out over a separate, but related, argument that is also logically sound" is pretty weak as an excuse for bad behavior directed at Tuvel.

Todd said...

Fernandinande said...

Although the TV ads for the gene testing companies imply that you should prepare to be delighted about discovering that you're actually 16% noble Amerindian, nearly everyone in the US who thinks they're white or Asian really is white or Asian.

5/10/17, 10:32 AM


Ah but are we going by the "one drop" rule here? If so, there you go...

Bruce Hayden said...

"Transracialism would mean the end of affirmative action. So maybe it's not all bad."

But that is precisely why so many on the left are panicked here.

The basic problem is that the Dem party(and the left) is an association of interest groups, who get together to cut up the pie. One interest group is the LBGTxyz alliance, and another the race mongers. Race mongers felt Affirmative Action as their piece of the pie. The LBGTxyz'ers get Gay Marriage, Gay parenting, etc. And their most aggrieved subgroup these days are the transgendered. It should be a Bridge Too Far, but they haven't really realized it yet. But for every boy convinced that, deep down, they are really a girl, and so should use the women's bathrooms, there are probably hundreds of women justifiably worried about their safety and security, if that, indeed, became the norm. Feminist leadership is really caught in a vice here, between most women opposing makes in their bathrooms, and the reality that a lot of the leaders are Lesbians, and thus are being forced to toe the LGBTxyz line on transgendered rights. My guess is that they will, ultimately, have to cut the transgendered loose, because not doing so risks loss of their power base (which is upper middle class, college educated women).

Possibly the next big clash will be between Muslims and both feminists and LGBT'ers. Fundamental Muslims enslave the former, and brutally kill the latter. But, Muslims are one of the newest aggrieved, oppressed, groups. I also expect that some Jews are going to wake up and realize that Muslims, to a great extent, are not their friends, and that contributing their money to leftist causes and Dem candidates is not making them any safer. A lot of revisionism and cognitive dissonance going on right now to paper over the left's Muslim problem - not just here, but, maybe even more so, in Europe.

TrespassersW said...

I self-identify as a resident of Sacramento's free public housing. Where's my free car? http://www.dailywire.com/news/16158/sacramento-gives-free-cars-public-housing-john-nolte#exit-modal

Drago said...

Chuck: "Transracialism would mean the end of affirmative action. So maybe it's not all bad"

Actually, it would mean everyone qualifies, and we need a much bigger Govt to administer it.

Professional lady said...

If I identify as age 66 and 2 months can I receive my full social security benefit right now? I should also be able to get on Medicare right now! My ship has come in!

TrespassersW said...

"Transgenderism is appropriate."

Assumes facts not in evidence.

Virgil Hilts said...

Bruce Hayden nails it. I'm pretty tolerant and on average/balance probably prefer gay people I know over straight, but trans stuff is a Bridge Too Far and proggies failed to think this one through. They definitely need new cause and for a while I thought the next push might be to accept man-boy love, but that still sounds like a decade or so off. To build on Bruce's war metaphor, i the proggies were smart they would take a decade off and consolidate their win rather than try and reach Moscow before the winter snows sets in.

n.n said...

The diverse special and peculiar interests are forced to reconcile the irreconcilable.

You would think if they can reconcile life and abortion, then they could reconcile virtually anything... in the twilight fringe.

tim in vermont said...

That's rhetoric, not logic, it's about the relative power of identity groups. Kind of precious that the prof thought otherwise.

etbass said...

From now on, I am a black. I expect all the benefits of AA. I do not expect to be called the N word except by other N's.

TWW said...

You can argue transgenderism is appropriate, or not. What you can't argue is that Trans genderism is appropriate but Trans racism is not. Or vice versa.

That is her point.

Yancey Ward said...

It is the racial spoils system that was under threat- that was the reason the Left was so adamant that Doleazal be tarred, feathered, and burned at the stake. And nothing, literally nothing is more alarming to a tribe than having one its own go off the reservation and support Ms. Doleazal.

Henry said...

If transgenderism is appropriate, then transracialism is appropriate.
Transracialism is not appropriate.
Therefore, transgenderism is not appropriate.


Thus all the sacred cows come home to roost.

Jim S. frames the issue in a way that reminds me of Peter Singer. Singer argues for arbortion on the basis that fetuses lack basic elements of "personhood". This applies, as a matter of degree, to infants as well. Singer's modus ponens argument works this way:

If abortion is defensible, then infanticide is defensible.

This, of course, flips into modus tollens argument:

If abortion is defensible, then infanticide is defensible.
Infanticide is not defensible.
Therefore abortion is not defensible.


What makes Singer interesting (and perhaps monstrous) is that he willingly accepts the logic of his premise. Tuvel seems willing to do that with her premise. But her critics are not willing to accept the logic of her premise, even though they share it with her.

And perhaps Jim S's modus ponens argument only succeeds because he defines Tuvel's premise in a way that allows it to succeed.

Richard Dolan said...

It's interesting that the objection to an oddball essay in an obscure journal about a topic that even for philosophy is a bit recherché has nothing to do with the essay's merits as philosophical argument, and everything to do with its political implications. The modus potens/modus tollens point is always true as a matter of form whenever one of the other argument is made. The problem here, according to the review, is that "most of the people who accept transgenderism do not accept transracialism".

Very strange place to have that fight, if a fight there must be. Here's a proposal for the major premise of a better syllogism: All academics are terrible at politics.

Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Henry said...

In terms of logic, the modus tollens argument is fallacious.

If transgenderism is appropriate, then transracialism is appropriate.
Transracialism is not appropriate.
Therefore, transracialism is not appropriate..


If transracialism is not appropriate, that tells us nothing about the appropriateness of transgenderism. Transgenderism may have its own justifications, independent of its applicability to transracialism.

Henry said...

I should say the Jim S's application of modus tollens is fallacious.

Henry said...

What he is actually producing is a non-sequitur: affirming the consequent.

Michael K said...

My comment disappeared so I will try again.

Already done, see DOD INSTRUCTION 1300.28 IN-SERVICE TRANSITION FOR TRANSGENDER SERVICE MEMBERS

The most common cause of recruits being discharged from basic training is psychiatric. It used to be asthma and I think that is still #2.

Why qualify a bunch of kids with psychiatric issues like Gender Dysphoria?

The "Transgender" movement is politics.

Dave from Minnesota said...

Virginia Minnesota. A high school boy is pretending to be a girl. He uses the girls locker room. He dances around in front of the girls, grabs his dude, then lifts his skirt up to show said dude to all the girls in the locker room. Parents complained. School admins said these is nothing they can do. Obama rules say they have to allow the boy to dance & show his dude to the girls in the girls locker room.

Last I heard that shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the school said “you’re atta hear, feller”. Case settled.

Richard said...

Forget Rachel Dolezal. It would appear that Colin Kaepernick can no longer pass as black.

Yancey Ward said...

Henry,

All of that is true, which then requires argumentation to explain why trangenderism is ok, but transracialism is not. That is the argument Tuvel's critics are trying desperately to avoid at all costs. Note that not a single critic has attempted a justification- it always ends at, "Fallacy!"

Balfegor said...

Re: Henry -- the fallacy you're suggesting is not with the argument, but rather, with the starting proposition:

If transgenderism is appropriate, then transracialism is appropriate.

You're saying that "transracialism is appropriate" does not follow inevitably from "transgenderism is appropriate" -- they could have separate justifications which are not cross-applicable.

Balfegor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Teacher! Teacher! I have the answer!

If carrots are purple, then plumbs are purple.
Carrots are not purple.
Therefore plumbs are not purple.

Now can I go the little boys room - or maybe the little girls room?

robother said...

The Romans foresaw all this, and invented a transitive case. Of course once you begin declining all nouns, the decline and fall of your culture is just a matter of time. But at least we'll know the correct pronoun to apply to our many-splendored genders.

Bay Area Guy said...

As for transracialism, I think there should be a "pledge" period, like at a fraternity.

For example, if Rachel Dolezal wants to identify as black, she should attend, say, a black church for a few months, and make a proper request to a council of elders, who can monitor her and edify her on some of the cultural dos and dont's to help facilitate the transition.

If she passes muster, then maybe they can issue a certificate, such as "authentically black" or whatever a synagogue issues when you convert to Judaism.

I think there needs to be a more structured process. You just can't walk into a Chinese restaurant and insist that you self-identify as a Chinaman (I know, bad word, but Colin Powell used it). Wouldn't the group, like a fraternity, have a say on whether you can join?

Yancey Ward said...

Bay Area Guy,

Yeah, it should be at least as hard as converting to Latvian Orthodox.

n.n said...

There is no need to piggyback arguments. In a liberal society, the assumption/assertion is that it is appropriate. The question is why isn't it appropriate?

Transgender. Transracial. Trans-species. Transhuman. Of the four, two are considered appropriate.

Jerry Goedken said...

Difference in genetic makeup between white and black, same sex: about 0.1%
Between men and women is about 2%.
Which transition would be easier? Research and discuss, Hypatia.

lgv said...

Why are people trying to conflate the two, other than they are have names that start with trans-?

It should eliminate quotas and all gender disparities. Just get people to self-identify as something else and we will end up with perfect diversity everywhere. I look forward to the end of women's sports. It's make no sense anyway, since we are all equal.

Ralph L said...

Nothing comes from nothing is King Lear.
Was he before or after Hammerstein?

If some feminists are hysterical, then hysterics are feminist.

Ralph L said...

Difference in genetic makeup between white and black, same sex: about 0.1%
I heard they've found that black Africans are the only people on earth with no neanderthal genes. Everyone else has 1-3%.
It was on PBS so it must be true, but I haven't heard from the Racial Police.

Todd said...

It all comes down to stars on thars...

ccscientist said...

Transracialism happens all the time. Obama was less than 50% black, so why was he black? Because he chose to be black. Why are people with 10% black blood black? Because someone decided they are. Anyone from Mexico on south is Hispanic even if they are racially American Indian, Black, white or other. Even Brazilians which ticks them off since they are not from "Hispania" (ie Spain). Blacks in America are American but no matter how long whites live in Africa they never become African. It is all just a terrible con game and the more people intermarry the worse it gets.

tcrosse said...

It's the news from Transylvania.

Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Henry said...

Balfegor -- You are correct, which is the question I have about Jim S's formulation. I could go read the original paper, but that involves work. But I'm suspicious that Jim S has reduced Tuvel's logic to a modus ponens argument simply to have a glib response.

In any case, I think Yancey Ward is closer to the mark than Jim S.

sparrow said...

Jerry By what metric do you arrive at those percentages? Coding only, chromosome length?

DanTheMan said...

>Transgender. Transracial. Trans-species. Transhuman. Of the four, two are considered appropriate.

Three are considered appropriate. You forgot about The Lightworker.

DanTheMan said...

"that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul."

That's transhuman, no?

sparrow said...

Race is tracked and specified by just a few genes but thousands of SNPs (signle nucleotide polymorphisms). Sex is detemined by a whole chromosome (XY vs XX) although Y is pretty small compared to the others.

The chromosome changes are extremely consequential as they influence a huge cascade of life long developmental effects. The SNPs that define race influence certain diseases and physical traits, but they are much less consequential. Expressing the differences in terms of base pairs or genomic length doesn't really capture it.

tim in vermont said...

These guys would never have gotten into a first rate school using the old SATs. All I'm sayin'.

Todd said...

DanTheMan said... [hush]​[hide comment]
"that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul."

That's transhuman, no?
5/10/17, 3:19 PM


I completely forgot about Mark Morford, that rare bread of asshat that can make that sort of statement about that sort of person, as he did. Talk about being spectacularly wrong! That is nuclear level stupid. That is "it burns" stupid. I wonder if he ever apologized for being so completely, utterly wrong (and did I say) stupid?

Smilin' Jack said...

Tuvel's modus ponens argument flips all too easily into this modus tollens argument

Feminism has taught women that logic is merely a tool of patriarchal oppression. Try arguing with a woman and she will quickly point this out.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I take it transracialism you don't have to have an operation.

It's really anti poor people to say they can't change their race.

Wait a minute. Wasn't there a white woman who said she was black?

Maybe I dreamed it.

eric said...

Transgender is a mental disorder.

Transracialism is both. It's a mental disorder for some. For others, it's being President Obama. A white mother and black father. You aren't one race.

You can be multiple races (there are more than 2) but you can't be mutltiple genders.

BarrySanders20 said...

Jim S mansplaining the feminist essay that was disappeared for heresy.

n.n said...

whites live in Africa they never become African

Worse, they are subject to mass abortion and elective regime changes, for, of all things, exclusion of hostile elements from their communities, and for globalist dreams of redistribute change (e.g. natural and anthropogenic resources).

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

transracialism is a gimmick from the cream industry attempting to stake more skin in the game.

Floris said...

Critical theory requires the obliteration of patriarchal and Euro-centric modes of thought, such as formal propositional logic. Thus, critical theorists are not required to accept the reality of structures of oppression such modus ponens.

The fact that the above argument depends upon the use of the oppressive "logical implication" is OK, because the one area of human knowledge that is not capable of being analyzed using critical theory is critical theory itself. See how that works!

n.n said...

Transracial? It depends on how you define race. It can be done by the "color of your skin" (e.g. [class] diversity) or by the "content of your character" (e.g. principled alignment).

Qwinn said...

(The following is an original work, must credit!)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Mental Illness!

What we must now call men who think their brain is that of a woman because they like to wear dresses and lipstick (e.g. Bruce Jenner):

Trans-women

What we used to call men who think their brain is that of a woman because they like to wear dresses and lipstick (e.g. Bruce Jenner):

Trans-vestites

People who identify as asexual, neither male nor female:

Trans-its

The leader of a congregation of people who identify as asexual:

Trans-it Authority

Men who think they possess female genitalia:

Trans-vaginal

People who erroneously believe they are incapable of speech:

Trans-mutes

People who think they are much larger than they really are (e.g. anorexics, bulemics):

Trans-fats

People who think they are much smaller than they really are (e.g. Lena Dunham):

Trans-portable

Deeply unattractive people who nevertheless seem to think they should be a fashion model (e.g. Lena Dunham):

Trans-poses

A white person descended from mainland Europeans who believes they're descended from blacks (e.g. Rachel Dolezal):

Trans-black

A black person descended from Africa who believes they're descended from white mainland Europeans:

Trans-Continental

A person who thinks he is one of the X-Men:

Trans-mutation

A person who thinks he is Aquaman:

Trans-atlantic

A person who thinks he is Bruce Willis:

Trans-action hero

A person who thinks he is sometimes Shrek:

Trans-m-ogrify

People who believe that their skin glows brightly:

Trans-lucent

People who believe that their skin glows so brightly they frequently burst into flames:

Trans-pyre

People convinced they can glow so brightly they are capable of nuclear ignition:

Trans-fusion

People whose skin actually does glow:

Trans-uranium

A person with at least 8 multiple personalities, at least 2 of which have formal military training:

Trans-formation

A person with at least 3 multiple personalities, at least 1 of which must be a Dominican or Jesuit priest:

Trans-mission

Right-handed people who are convinced they are left-handed sailors:

Trans-port

A person who is convinced they're never on time, even when they're early:

Trans-late

People who love to hang out in graveyards:

Trans-cripts

Pajama wearing bloggers who are convinced they're real journalists (/sarc):

Tran-scribes

A person who can't stop doing math:

Trans-figure

A person convinced they are a much better handyman than they really are:

Trans-fixes

A person convinced their credit rating is much better than it really is:

Trans-Union

People who can't stop questioning everything:

Trans-ponder

People with imaginary children:

Trans-parent

Women with imaginary siblings:

Tran-sistor

People who think they are a tree:

Trans-plants

People who think they are a tree from Middle Earth:

Trans-I-Ents

British citizens who stopped voting for the Labour party:

Tran-I-Tory

People who can't stop saying goodbye:

Trans-later

People who can't stop meditating:

Trans-om

People who insist on living in small shallow pools of water:

Trans-pond

People who can't stop writing poetry:

Trans-verses

People who are convinced they'll make it big in Hollywood if they just keep trying:

Trans-actors

People who join fringe religious cults:

Tran-sects

And finally, where the Left's endless culture and class warfare is destined to take us all, black and white, male and female, and everything in between:

The Trans-plantation

Mark Caplan said...

If transgenderism is true, then nothing follows, not transracialism (I'm a Zulu), not transpecies-ism (I'm a squirrel*), not translucentism (I'm invisible).

*
Me: My brother thinks he's a chicken.
Friend: Why don't you send him to a psychiatrist?
Me: We would, except we need the eggs.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

Hey Qwinn, good work. Can we play?

Imaginary offspring:

Trans-cendents

Person with imagined speech impediment:

Trans-mute.

The state of being obsessed with trannies:

En-transed.

Gahrie said...

Personally, i plan on having my legs cut off below the knee and calling myself Napoleon. I promise after I get France straightened out, I won't invade anybody. Honest, I swear.......

Birches said...

Those Ancestry.com DNA kits might end up opening a real can of shit, as whites who discover they're really 10% Hispanic or black or American Indian start making AA claims based on their results

In laws Christmas present this year. There was family lore on their end of the inevitable high cheek boned ancestor. Not true. I, on the other hand, am 6 percent African. Ha! Maybe I should start checking the Black and Hispanic boxes.

The Godfather said...

Maybe it's just me, but I find transracialism (in some people) easier to understand than transgenderism. Most of us are a mixture of different "racial" heritages. In some societies, someone who is a mixture of racial heritages might be able to make a choice as to which heritage he/she identifies with. In white American society, we have tended to see this in terms of people with mixed black and white heritage "passing" as white, but there's no reason why people with such mixed heritage might not choose to "pass" as black (for example if they want a job in the local government of the District of Columbia, which calls itself a "chocolate city").

But as I understand biology and genetics, almost everyone is, from birth, either male or female. No one, or virtually no one, is born part male and part female. People like Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner were male from birth. No matter what clothes they wear, no matter what cosmetic surgery they have, no matter how they "identify", they are male. If they have surgery to remove their male sexual organs and create ersatz female organs, they demonstrate their personal commitment to "be" female. Does this make them women? Do they (if younger than Bruce) have periods? Do they bear children?

For someone of mixed racial heritage born "White" to identify as Black (or vice versa) raises many fewer questions.

Kevin said...

Transracialism solves two problems for Elizabeth Warren. First, it makes her Fauxcahontas problem go away. Second, she can run for the title of "first transracial president".

Of course Trump would just declare himself Mexican American to win the Latino vote, one-upping her in the process.

Michael K said...

I, on the other hand, am 6 percent African. Ha! Maybe I should start checking the Black and Hispanic boxes.

My wife and daughter are 1% African but their theory is that they are descended from Vandals who ended up in the mountains in Morocco. The Vandals did end up there.

Jupiter said...

It seems like we need some sort of registry. Maybe we could issue ID cards?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"What if we wanted to imagine ourselves as transdimensional beings, maybe, or entirely disassociated with, and transcending, all physical reality? Ethereal intelligences?
This opens plenty of madness options, well beyond any misunderstandings of biology."

You call it madness, I call it Christianity.

SukieTawdry said...

I'm not sure I understand what "appropriate" means in this context.

jr565 said...

Idont know about the word "appropriate" What is or isn't appropriate.
But I would say transgenderism is IN ERROR. there is no moral judgement made about people who want or need to identify as opposite sex. Only, the idea that gender is a social construct which defines people as men or women is factually WRONG.

Jason said...

GODFREY ELFWICK YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!

Real American said...

Not appropriate. Not inappropriate. Absurd. Both are absurd.

veni vidi vici said...

It's only appropriate that "Truvel's modus ponens" looks at first glance like "Truvel's modus penis", in the given context.

Craig said...

Professor Althouse's "cruel neutrality" pretense is revealed by the way that she approaches different topics with different interpretive tools. She likes the political outsider, so she reads Trump charitably (sometimes playing the mental experiment of "assume he is a genius, can you make sense of this"). She dislikes academic and activist feminism (see her long history of interacting with them), so she does not use the same interpretive mode there.

Professor Althouse is very smart, but "cruel neutrality" is very hard. Very hard. The contrast between her readings here (and her other posts about academic and activist feminism) and her readings of political outsiders makes clear that she (like most of us) mostly falls far short of that standard.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Craig said

If you don't like the free ice cream, either don't eat it, or don't pay for it.

Not that you are without foundation.

Michael McNeil said...

whites live in Africa they never become African

Indeed. A Facebook friend of mine, a “citizen” of South Africa, a real bright guy who I've known through Internet channels for many years, posted the following earlier this year on his Facebook wall:

I love all the money saving tips being bandied about at the moment as inflation skyrockets. These are probably useful for people who have jobs. Unfortunately the apartheid laws here prevent many white people from getting work of any kind no matter how skilled they might be. Elon Musk for example would probably be sleeping under a bridge if he was still living here. Right now, I am also officially unemployed with absolutely no way of ever getting a job here again as I too am classed as being a white person. At my age (early 60s) this is a slow death sentence. Isn't freedom fun?

Michael McNeil said...

Anyone from Mexico on south is Hispanic even if they are racially American Indian, Black, white or other. Even Brazilians which ticks them off since they are not from "Hispania" (ie Spain).

The Brazilians (and Portuguese before them) have a right to be offended. The term “Hispania” — referring to the entire peninsula that we term Iberian — predates the modern “Spanish” kingdom by nearly 2,000 years. Here it is, for instance, as inscribed (in Greek) on the famous Antikythera Mechanism from the 1st century BC: ΙΣΠΑΝΙΑ. The modern Spanish nation, so named, dates only from 1469 when the medieval Iberian realms of Castille and Aragon were united by a dynastic marriage. The unified kingdom (of which modern Spain is the direct descendant) crowned itself with that ancient name of “Hispania” as PR that they were — or ought to be — now regarded as really in occupation of the whole Iberian peninsula. Unfortunately for that conceit, however, there is Portugal — and now its cultural descendant Brazil. They also, rightfully, regard themselves as authentically “Hispanic.”

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